Tom: Lhasa (July 07)

Lhasa (July 07) · Jul 14, 06:15 AM

Four nights in one city — I’m itching to leave — have been for two days — but decided to stay for the company. Katie, Ida, and Dominic show no signs of leaving soon, so I’ve decided this will be my last full day in Lhasa. In the morning I look into five to seven day tours options; looks like I’ll be in a Land Cruiser (they’re all over town) to the Everest Base Camp with three strangers. Katie is interested in a longer trip to Mt. Kailash, and I sign on with an existing group — three Canadians going for five nights.

Today is for running errands and catching up, but I still spend a couple hours wandering with Katie through the Tibetan quarter. She commissions a sleeping bag and I try on a Tibetan long-sleeved coat.

Yesterday I spent about two hours looking over the pictures I’ve taken since I’ve left Beijing. I selected about 150 and re-compressed them for quicker uploading. Today I go back to the same telephone bar with computers in the back room. They also do cycling tours, and have a kitten tied to a long string. I just sit on their DSL line, sending images to flickr. The kitten is sleeping on my right; yesterday it was on my left, awake, and very loudly meowing.

Yesterday I also heard from dad that my health insurance had been canceled. This evening I spend a couple hours sorting that business out. First I call from an internet bar, to find out that I will need to receive, sign, and send off a fax. I head over to my favorite telephone bar, advertising faxes out front, but they have to send someone to borrow a fax machine from someone else. And their headset is broken, so I can’t use skype to make my calls. Instead, I make an expensive traditional international land-line call to give the fax number to the people working my insurance problem. The call costs about 4 USD. Fifteen minutes later my fax comes in — I spent the intervening time talking with a Chinese girl who works here. I sign the last page of the fax, check the appropriate don’t-cancel-my-insurance boxes, and — with some help — get the fax sent. I’ll confirm receipt from the internet bar with skype; I’ve already spent 10 USD in total and I don’t want to make another pricey call.

From the internet bar I also called home and communicated my plans to go the Everest Base Camp. Mom and dad have been waiting for me to suggest a good birthday present since March, and we agree to make this Tibet side-trip that present.

In celebration, I splurge on a Nepali set-course dinner at the Namtso Restaurant attached to our hotel. The dinner is also a celebration of my GI system’s full recovery to regularity. Ida is still still, however, and has resorted to a single-dose anti-biotic treatment this morning. She still joins us for dinner, and orders a slice of chocolate cake with ice-cream. I copy her desert order, but the cake is dry, so I mix it up with the ice cream in an empty teapot. The rest of the table looks on in horrified amusement. Katie and I also split a nasty chocolate banana crepe which was accidentally ordered. The chocolate sauce is almost vinegary. I’m stuffed. After dinner we hang around at our rooftop table. I talk photography and cameras with Dominic while Katie and Ida sit down with another couple planning the longer Kailash trip.

When Katie and Ida return, we retire to the room. Katie goes out and brings back beer, which I don’t drink, but we all stay up past midnight, talking, packing, and journaling the last few days.

At six I met my Canadian partners to check out the car, meet the driver, and pay the tour company. We were upgraded to a better — newer — SUV than we signed up for. We leave tomorrow at eight.

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http://tom.spacing-guild.net/2006/07/15/shigatse-july-08

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